The Bittersweet Water Reclamation Facility Improvements project received the 2026 American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Illinois Engineering Excellence Special Achievement Award.
Located in the Village of Bartlett, Illinois, the wastewater treatment facility was constructed in 1971 and required significant upgrades to address aging infrastructure, complex processes, and maintenance issues.
With an average capacity of 3.7 million gallons per day (MGD) and a peak capacity of 15 MGD, the Village hired Strand Associates, Inc.® to enhance environmental sustainability, improve effluent quality, increase wet-weather capacity to 20.5 MGD, and reduce energy consumption through automation and efficiency.
Key improvements included:
- Replacing outdated grit removal and tertiary sand filters with advanced systems.
- Converting aeration tanks for biological nutrient removal.
- Introducing ultraviolet light disinfection for forward and excess flow discharges.
- Designing a new SCADA system for improved monitoring and reduced labor.
- Repurposing existing structures to optimize operations and lower costs.
This $35 million project significantly simplified the processes at an aging treatment plant. Notably, the Bittersweet Water Reclamation Facility has become a model for nutrient removal using sidestream-enhanced biological phosphorus removal (S2EBPR) and return activated sludge fermentation (RAS) technology, making it one of the first implementations of its kind in Illinois.
This project also won a 2025 Public Works Project of the Year Award in the Environmental category from the APWA Chicago Metro Chapter!
